Category: God
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Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Speech and Muslim Oversensitivity
This is a slightly redacted version of a piece first posted on 18 September 2006 at the old PowerBlogs site. I repost it not only to save it for my files, but also because it it important to remember not only the successful and unsuccessful acts of Islamist terrorism worldwide, but also the many incidents which…
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“Some of Us Just Go One God Further”
I've seen this quotation attributed to Richard Dawkins. From what I have read of him, it seems like something he would say. The idea, I take it, is that all gods are on a par, and so, given that everyone is an atheist with respect to some gods, one may as well make a clean…
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Freud or James? Wish-Fulfillment or Inducement to Strenuous Living?
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), The Future of an Illusion: It would indeed be very nice if there were a God, who was both creator of the world and a benevolent providence, if there were a moral world order and a future life. But at the same time it isvery odd that this is all just as…
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And Yet Again on the God of the Philosophers: A Summing Up
This topic is generating some interest. I 've gotten a good bit of e-mail on it. Herewith, a summing-up by way of commentary on an e-mail I received. Joshua Orsak writes: I wanted to email you to tell you how once again you have elevated the medium of the Internet blog with your recent threads…
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Robert Oakes Weighs in on the God of the Philosophers
I got a phone call from philosopher of religion Robert Oakes yesterday. In the course of a lengthy chat, I mentioned my recent post on Pascal and Buber and asked him what he thought of it. Today I received the following from him by e-mail: Very good to talk with you. Short comment on that El…
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Still More on the God of the Philosophers Versus the God of Abraham, et al.
Ken e-mails and I respond in blue: I turn on my computer and check out the Maverick Philosopher and suddenly half of my day is shot. First I have to look up the word 'pellucidity' and then I am stuck trying to figure out why your claim about the phrases 'God-P' and 'God-R' does not…
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More on the God of the Philosophers
Spencer Case, 'on the ground' in Afghanistan, e-mails: Your recent post discussing the God of the philosophers and the God of Abraham and Isaac caught my interest. Having grown up in a religious home, I have always been of the opinion that arguments for theism argue for something different than what believers take themselves to…
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Pascal and Buber on the God of the Philosophers
"God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob — not of the philosophers and scholars." Thus exclaimed Blaise Pascal in the famous memorial in which he recorded the overwhelming religious/mystical experience of the night of 23 November 1654. Martin Buber comments (Eclipse of God, Humanity Books, 1952, p. 49): These words represent Pascal's change…
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Is Atheism Intellectually Respectable? On Romans 1:18-20
Joe Carter over at First Things argues that "We have to abandon the politically correct notion that atheism is intellectually respectable." My own view is that theism and atheism are both intellectually respectable. Carter makes his case by invoking St. Paul: In Romans, St. Paul is clear that atheism is a case of vincible ignorance: “For his…
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God: Necessary or Noncontingent?
Many theists in the tradition of Anselm and Aquinas define God as a necessary being. But if God is a necessary being, then he cannot not exist: he exists in all broadly-logically possible worlds. The actual world is of course one of these worlds. So it would seem to follow from the very definition of…
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Poetry as a God Substitute?
From the mail: Thanks for your blog. It deals with matters of real interest (…using the word 'interest' in its original sense of 'it matters'). [From Latin inter esse, which is suggestive.] Perhaps you could elaborate on something you mentioned in your (very funny) post on some aphorisms of Wallace Stevens: After one has abandoned…
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Sacrificium Intellectus
No thank you. A God that would demand the sacrifice of the intellect or even the crucifixion of the intellect is not a God worthy of worship. Imagine moving at death from the shadow lands of this life into the divine presence only to find that God is nothing but irrational power personified, the apotheosis…
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Is Divine Simplicity Consistent With Contingent Divine Knowledge?
The day before yesterday, I sketched the problem mentioned in the title. Today I offer a more rigorous presentation of the problem and examine a solution. The problem can be set forth as an aporetic triad: 1. Every free agent is a libertarianly-free (L-free) agent. 2. God is ontologically simple (where simplicity is an entailment…
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The Aporetics of Divine Simplicity
Thomist27 e-mails: Thank you first of all for a spectacular blog. I discovered Maverick Philosopher a few years ago and have been reading it regularly ever since. Through your blog, I learned that you wrote the SEP's article on divine simplicity, among similar things; I think, then, that you are qualified to answer my questions. …
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God, Gratitude, and Gladness
Jim Ryan of Philosoblog posts infrequently, but always interestingly. Ryan is both a conservative and an atheist. Being a conservative, he appreciates the importance of gratitude. Being an atheist, he sees no reason to take gratitude and its importance as supportive of theistic belief. Herewith, some commentary on his post A New Error Theory for Theism. 1.…